Amulets in Magical Practice

This Element takes as its remit the production and use of amulets. The focus will be on amulets with no or minimal textual content like those comprising found stone semi-precious gem and/or animal body parts. That is a material form that is unaccompanied by directive textual inscription. The analysis considers this materiality to understand its context of use including ritual and metaphysical operations. Through discussion of selected case studies from British Celtic and Scandinavian cultures it demonstrates the associative range of meaning that enabled the attribution of power/agency to the amuletic object Uniquely it will consider this material culture from an interdisciplinary perspective drawing together insights from the disciplines of cultural studies religious studies ''folk'' studies archaeology and Scandinavian studies. It develops the concept of ''trans-aniconism'' to encapsulates an amulet''s temporal relations and develops the proposition of ''landscape amulets.''